Chickpea Breeding and Molecular Breeding Lab, IARI, New Delhi

With Rajeev Varshney – I'm on a streak! I've been a top fan for 11 months in a row. 🎉

Pusa Chickpea Manav and Double.dollar type Pusa 4035 are available for MoU with IARI for seed producing companies and Regd FPOs.
Please.contact Dr Akriti Sharma ( +91 99091 17983) incharge ZTMPBD for details or Mr Nitin (+91 99091 17983)

The four from lab have made us all proud.
It was Jorben Jo and Nilesh Joshi Ameta .
Now of Sneha Priya Reddy who also brought laurels to the lab. Mentored under the able guidance of Bharadwaj Chellapilla from IARI Pusa and Kadambot Siddique from UWA Research , she worked on Thesis title: Morpho-physiological analysis and comparative proteomics profiling of chickpea genotypes under terminal drought stress.
An excellent work under the DBT AISRF programme her PhD brought her laurels at PAG USA and also at ICRISAT giving her best research paper award.

Excellent and very i formative publications were brought out from her research which also highlighted the collaboration between UWA and IARI.

Pappula-Reddy, S. P., Kumar, S., Pang, J., Chellapilla, B., Pal, M., Millar, A. H., & Siddique, K. H. M., 2024. High-throughput phenotyping for terminal drought stress in chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.). Plant Stress. 100386.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.stress.2024.100386

Pappula-Reddy, S. P., Pang, J., Chellapilla, B., Kumar, S., Dissanayake, B. M., Pal, M., ... & Siddique, K. H. M., 2023. Insights into chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) genotype adaptations to terminal drought stress: Evaluating water-use patterns, root growth, and stress-responsive proteins. Environmental and Experimental Botany. 218, 105579. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envexpbot.2023.105579
Also she worked actively with team to bring out
Harish, D., Pappula Reddy, S. P., Kumar, N., Bharadwaj, C., Kumar, T., Parida, S., ... & Varshney, R. K., 2024. Integrating multilocus genome-wide association studies in chickpea landraces to discern the genetics of drought tolerance. Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems. 8, 1389970. https://doi.org/10.3389/fsufs.2024.1389970

Patel, U., Kumar, N., Reddy, S. P. P., Bharadwaj, C., Kumar, T., Sharma, P. K., ... & Hamwieh, A., 2022. Identification of novel donors for yield contributing traits from Chickpea Adaptive Trials (CAT) of ICARDA for base broadening of Indian chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.). Electronic Journal of Plant Breeding. 13, 1395–1401. https://doi.org/10.37992/2022.1304.180

Kumar, T., Tiwari, N., Bharadwaj, C., Roorkiwal, M., Reddy, S. P. P., Patil, B. S., ... & Varshney, R. K., 2022. A comprehensive analysis of Trehalose-6-phosphate synthase (TPS) gene for salinity tolerance in chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.). Scientific Reports. 12, 16315. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-20771-x

Shimray, P. W., Bharadwaj, C., Patil, B. S., Sankar, S. M., Kumar, N., Reddy, S. P. P., ... & Verma, P., 2022. Evaluation and Identification of Stable Chickpea Lines for Yield-Contributing Traits from an Association Mapping Panel. Agronomy. 12, 3115. https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy12123115

Kumar, N., Roorkiwal, M., Pal, M., Patil, B. S., Soni, A., Joshi, N., Priya, S. P., ... & Varshney, R. K., 2021. Response of shoot ionic (Na+/K+) distribution on yield and agro-physiological traits in chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) recombinant in**ed lines population under salinity. Indian journal of genetics and plant breeding. 81, 590–593. https://doi.org/10.31742/IJGPB.81.4.13

Kumar, N., Soren, K. R., Bharadwaj, C., PR, S. P., Shrivastava, A. K., Pal, M., ... & Varshney, R. K., 2021. Genome-wide transcriptome analysis and physiological variation modulates gene regulatory networks acclimating salinity tolerance in chickpea. Environmental and Experimental Botany. 187, 104478. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envexpbot.2021.104478

Kumar, N., Bharadwaj, C., Sahu, S., Shiv, A., Shrivastava, A. K., Reddy, S. P. P., ... & Varshney, R. K., 2021. Genome-wide identification and functional prediction of salt-stress related long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) in chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.). Physiology and Molecular Biology of Plants. 27, 2605–2619. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12298-021-01093-0

Soren, K. R., Madugula, P., Kumar, N., Barmukh, R., Sengar, M. S., Bharadwaj, C., ... & Varshney, R. K., 2020. Genetic dissection and identification of candidate genes for salinity tolerance using Axiom® CicerSNP array in chickpea. International Journal of Molecular Sciences. 5058.
https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms21145058

Kumar, T., Tiwari, N., Bharadwaj, C., Sarker, A., Pappula, S. P. R., Singh, S., & Singh, M., 2020. Identification of allelic variation in drought responsive dehydrin gene based on sequence similarity in chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.). Frontiers in Genetics. 11, 1579. https://doi.org/10.3389/fgene.2020.584527

Book chapter:

Bharadwaj, C., Kumar, N., Jha, U. C., Roorkiwal, M., Hamwieh, A., Varshney, R. K., Siddique, K. H. M., Kumar, Y., Pappula Reddy, S. P., … & Nayyar, H., 2024. In Quest of Novel Alleles for Stress Tolerance in Chickpea. In: Kale, C., Bharadwaj, C., Sarkar, A (eds). Allele Mining for Genomic Designing of Grain Legume Crops. CRC Press, Boca Raton, 33–49. https://doi.org/10.1201/9781003385059

Now working as a Post Doc fellow at The UWA Institute of Agriculture, she as a dedicated researcher shall.be spreading the chickpea lab legacy further.
Congratulations 🎊

Chickpea Breeding and Molecular Breeding Lab, IARI, New Delhi is very happy that Nilesh Joshi Ameta under the able mentorship of Bharadwaj Chellapilla and guidance of Kumar has worked on “Mining and Validation of ERF Family Genes for Salt Tolerance in Landraces of Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.).”

He cracked ARS this year and will be a budding scientist, taking the legacy if chickpea lab along with Daana Kumara , Jorben Jo Reddy of UWA Research further in his own bastion.

Research Publications of Excellence were brought about him. They include

1. Joshi, N., Reddy, S. P. P., Kumar, N., Bharadwaj, C., Tapan, K., Patil, B. S., and Sudhir, K. (2023). Siphoning novel sources of seedling salinity tolerance from the diverse chickpea landraces. Crop and Pasture Science, 74(11).
https://doi.org/10.1071/CP22319

2. Kumar, N., Roorkiwal, M., Pal, M., Patil, B. S., Soni, A., Joshi, N., Soni, A., Patil, B.S., Pal, M., Roorkiwal, M., and Varshney, R. K. (2021). Response of shoot ionic (Na+/K+) distribution on yield and agro-physiological traits in chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) recombinant in**ed lines population under salinity. Indian journal of genetics and plant breeding, 81(04), 590-593.
http://dx.doi.org/10.31742/ISGPB.81.4.13

Popular articles:
1. Joshi, N., Yadav, S., Danakumara, T., Kumar, N., and Bhradwaj, C. (2024). Beyond the Horizon: Breeding Salt Tolerant Crops for Sustainable Agriculture in a Changing Climate. The agriculture magazine, 3, 17-20.

Chickpea Breeding and Molecular Breeding Lab is proud that as we close the year we had 4 great Human Resources from the lab, who will carry the legacy further. All have established themselves as budding researchers in institutes of repute.
We the labmates are proud of these persons and are our role models for us under our able mentor Bharadwaj Chellapilla .
We shall bring a series of these four drs Jorben Jo , Nilesh Joshi Ameta Daana Kumara and Priya reddy pappula.

Dr Jorben J had completed his Doctoral degree and joined as Assitant Professor, Hindu University, department of Agriculture in plant Breeding and Genetics.

He worked for his PhD Thesis on : "Marker Assisted Pyramiding of Foc genes for developing wilt (Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. ciceri) resistant elite Chickpea lines”

Research Papers from his programme include :
1) Development of high yielding Fusarium wilt resistant cultivar by pyramiding of “genes” through marker-assisted backcrossing in chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.). Frontiers in Genetics, 13, 1747.
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fgene.2022.924287/full

2) Identification of multi-race Fusarium wilt resistance in chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) using rapid hydroponic phenotyping.Phytopathologia Mediterranea.
https://scholar.google.com/citations?view_op=view_citation&hl=en&user=c09_QjAAAAAJ&citation_for_view=c09_QjAAAAAJ:YsMSGLbcyi4C

3)Multi-trait multi environment analysis for stability in MABC lines of Chickpea (Cicer arietinum). Indian Journal of Agricultural Sciences, 92(8), 1005-1009.
https://scholar.google.com/citations?view_op=view_citation&hl=en&user=c09_QjAAAAAJ&citation_for_view=c09_QjAAAAAJ:Y0pCki6q_DkC

He, with Bharadwaj sir et al developed a Field Note App for Android
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://play.google.com/store/apps/details%3Fid%3Din.krishi.fieldnote%26referrer%3Dutm_source%253Dgoogle%2526utm_medium%253Dorganic%2526utm_term%253Dfield%2Bnote%2Bapp%26pcampaignid%3DAPPU_1_uEhwZ9LiIa7vseMP8ujCmQQ&ved=2ahUKEwjSnoiNkcuKAxWud2wGHXK0MEMQ8oQBegQIExAB&sqi=2&usg=AOvVaw0EADd8HPYnRSplBfApbanF

A Book was written on
Seed Science Made Easy-Kalyani Publishers.

Chickpea Breeding and Molecular Breeding Lab, IARI, New Delhi had a hay day at the recently concluded 2 National Genetics Congress from 11 to 13 Dec at NPL, New Delhi.
The lab lead oral ppt of Bharadwaj Chellapilla and Kumar co authoring patil from Dharwad, manish, Rajeev Varshney from Murdoch University UWA Research of Kadambot Siddique and tripathi from iipr Kanpur and Chaturvedi of RLBCAU was adjudged as best oral presentation and Ravpreet Kaur poster brought the laurels when adjudged as Best poster.
With rao submitting a poster on importance of prebreef8ng in chickpea, Kumar on extra bold seeded kabuli, Uttarayan Dasgupta on vigour namaste germination deciphering the mechanisms in chickpea, it was a great participation from lab.

Congratulations Kumar, Bharadwaj Chellapilla and all co authors on this article: A tribute to Prof M. S. Swaminathan (Hindi : *Mati ke lal: Bharat Ratn Prof. M.S.Swaminathan*) in Pusa Surabhi Oct 2023 -March 2024:1 - 4.
A.one of a kind that has come in Hindi.
Congratulations 🎊 IARI Pusa to.have brought it out

Congratulations 🎊 Dr Sneha Priya Reddy on successful completion of your final viva. The lab proudly celebrates your success.
She worked on: Morpho-physiological analysis and comparative proteomics profiling of chickpea
genotypes under terminal drought stress, with Siddique , , from UWA Research and with Bharadwaj Chellapilla and pal and Sudhir Kumar here.
Excellent publications and great output.
The Chickpea Breeding and Molecular Breeding Lab, IARI, New Delhi spreads it's students globally. Kudos another milestone

Long break, it was wilt sick plot sowings, seed setting and seed dispatch.
In this hustle bustle we had lovely events kumars birthday, @ apoorva raos birthday and s birthday 🎂
Thanks that Bharadwaj Chellapilla and all the lab mates had a fulfilled moment.
Diwali is one thing which brings all the lab people together. Lovely rangoli by Ravpreet Kaur , and the arrangements by Patel Umashankar Verma and . The lab had some cosy fulfilled moments.
Happy Diwali!” “Wishing you a festive season filled with warmth, laughter, and success. Your hard work and dedication light up our workplace—thank you for everything!” “As we celebrate the festival of lights, let's remember that *our teamwork and collaboration are the true lights* that guide us to success.

Congratulations to Bharadwaj Chellapilla Neeraj Kumar student Dr and all my co-authors for this publication in the prestigious journal *Genetic Res. Crop Evol.* of this article. You are all aware that chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) serves as a vital protein and mineral source in vegetarian diets worldwide. Our earlier studies indicated a narrow genetic base (Bharadwaj et al @
Journal of Genetics 2011), to.overcome it a diverse chickpea genotypes for seven yield and yield-related traits, and investigated genetic diversity, population structure, and marker-trait associations for yield-contributing traits using *gene-based SSR markers* that hold potential for marker-assisted breeding and pre breeding base broadening programs aimed at enhancing chickpea cultivation.
They revealed substantial genetic diversity (He = 0.57) among the chickpea genotypes. STRUCTURE analysis delineated the population into five sub-groups. Comparison between UPGMA clustering and Bayesian STRUCTURE analysis generally showed agreement in population subdivisions and genetic relationships

*Citation*
Philanim, W.S., Bharadwaj, C., Kumar, N. et al. 2024. Genetic diversity, population structure and marker-trait association analysis for yield-related traits in chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.). Genet Resour Crop Evol (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10722-024-02191-0

Murdoch University International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas - ICARDA CGIAR

Congratulations Team Chickpea ICAR IARI on identification of very high yielding, centrally identified mechanical harvestable chickpea variety for North West Plain zone of Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Delhi , Western UP
Apart from machine harvestability, the new umbrella ideotype makes it higher yielding than normal high yielding varieties of this region.
Congratulations 🎊 Team Chickpea Drs tripathi, Bharadwaj Chellapilla VS, Kumar singh patil and all the technical staff Sanjeev Chauhan, rajesh singh, mukesh all the collaborators
IARI Pusa UWA Research CGIAR Krishi.TV Indian Council of Agricultural Research Murdoch University International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas - ICARDA